Posting net profit for seven consecutive years, the Tripura Gramin Bank (TGB) is among India's top three out of 46 regional rural banks (RRBs) in terms of profit, business and growth, TGB Chairman Mahendra Mohan Goswami said on Monday.
"In terms of profit, business and growth, the TGB is among the three leading RRBs in the country. After some of them merger with commercial banks, currently India has 46 RRBs against the earlier 56," Goswami told IANS.
He said that the 43-year old TGB, has posted a net profit of Rs 125.45 crore in the fiscal 2018-19 against the net profit of Rs 44.14 crore in 2017-18, and of Rs 56 crore in 2016-17.
The Central government has a 50 percent stake in TGB, the United Bank of India (UBI) has 35 per cent, while the 15 per cent is held by the Tripura government.
The TGB, with 148 full-fledged branches and 11 ultra-small branches (USBs), has been gradually expanding its business across the northeastern state, specially in the rural and remote areas.
The Chairman said that all the 11 USBs would be converted into full-fledged branches in the current fiscal.
"The TGB is the only one among the eight RRBs in the northeastern region, comprising eight states including Sikkim, that has been making profit successively," he said.
Like other nationalised banks, the TGB has been providing all modern facilities to the customers, including computerised, online financial transactions and mobile banking, besides ATM (Automated Teller Machine) services.
According to the official, crossing ther Rs 9,000 landmark for the first time, the TGB grew its volume of business in the last financial year to Rs 9,267.45, which is 11.23 per cent more transacted than the corresponding period of the previous financial year .
Goswami said: "The deposits of the Gramin Bank increased by 12.57 per cent and crossed Rs 6,691.77 crore as on March 31, from Rs 5,944.55 crore on March 31, 2018.
"When most nationalised banks registered losses, the TGB posted a net profit of Rs 125.45 crore and operating profit of Rs 227.92 crore in the 2018-19 fiscal.
The bank had started its journey in 1976 with a loss of Rs 3,550.47 crore.
TGB managed to wipe out its entire accumulated loss of Rs 139.40 crore in the fiscal 2012-13 by registering a net profit year-on-year.
"The bank's Credit Deposit Ratio (CDR) currently stood at 38.49 per cent against the 48 per cent CDR of nationalised banks functioning in the state. The TGB's 2017-18's CDR was 40.16 per cent," he said
According to the official, the TGB's Capital to Risk Assets Ratio in the last fiscal (CRAR) was 18.40 per cent. This, however, is much higher than the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) stipulated ratio of 9 per cent CRAR.
Covering over 75 per cent of Tripura's four-million population, mostly in the rural and interior areas, TGB's gross non-performing assets (NPAs) as on March 31 this year stood at Rs 230.41 crore, which is 8.95 per cent of the total advance of the bank, against Rs 254.05 crore NPAs as on March 31 last year.
The TGB is the first RRB in India to have been accorded permission by the RBI to start treasury function of the Tripura government and open a currency chest.
The Chairman said that to encourage entrepreneurship among the rural youth and avoid the guarantor system in getting loans, the Gramin Bank has, since 2015-16, started forming Joint Liability Groups (JLG), and several thousand such groups have been formed so far, involving around 20,000 people.
The TGB has provided Rs 182.92 crore to 24,650 unemployed people under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana loan scheme for micro industries.
(Sujit Chakraborty can be contacted at sujit.c@ians.in)
--IANS
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